athlete pay

christmas was great fun with the family. there was much eating. there was also much playing of games: speed scrabble, yahtzee, parcheesi, aggravation. good times.

now, back to last thursday. the company i work for hit one million dollars in revenue. our boss popped open a 1996 bottle of don perignon, or as i know him, don bubbly. i drank forty dollars worth of champagne, and it wasn't even good for a buzz.

also on thursday, two women next to my cube were lambasting professional athletes. 1) professional athletes make too much money. 2) all professional athletes are either thugs, womanizers, or substance abusers. i thought it was appropriate for me to make my views known to them. 1) professional athletes deserve all the money they get, if not more. 2) there are plenty of athletes who make good role models. 3) you base your opinions on the least amount of information possible.

the supreme court is hearing a case in february about the use of eminent domain for the purpose of economic development. kelo versus the city of new london, connecticut. usually eminent domain is used for improvement of public works and infrastructure. sometimes it is used to redevelop a blighted area. the persons who are relocated must be provided with just compensation. in hastings, nebraska, a developer bought several houses in a stretch along burlington. the developer tried to buy the whole row of houses, but was deterred by two different people who wanted to stay in their respective homes. the homes that the developer was able to buy sat vacant and deteriorated over the years. the city condemned the houses as a blighted area and used eminent domain to remove the people from the two remaining houses in that stretch. compensation was not just, unless you qualify a well-placed cheap shot to the testicles as just. it gets better. the developer received funding from the government to redevelop the blighted area, an area that he blighted.

in other news, my right nut is attempting to debouch from a hole in my cargo pants.

my songs: we gotta get out of this place, keep on rockin' in the free world, and the flight of the bumblebee.